Wednesday, 24 December 2014

Nearly All Diabetic People Should Be on Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs: Experts

New guidelines from the American Diabetes Association recommend greater statin use

WebMD News from HealthDay

By Steven Reinberg

HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Dec. 23, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- New guidelines from the American Diabetes Association (ADA) call for giving the cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins to all people with diabetes to help prevent heart disease.

These new standards bring the association in line with the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association, which also recommend giving low- or high-dose statins to all people at risk for heart disease, including people with diabetes.

"We agree that the decision to start a statin should be based on a patient's risk," said Dr. Richard Grant, a research scientist at Kaiser Permanente Division of Research and chairman of the ADA's professional practice committee.

"It turns out that patients with diabetes have the same risk as people with heart disease, so all of our patients need to be on statins," he said.

However, Grant said some people with diabetes may not need statins. These include younger, healthier patients and very old patients who have other medical conditions that shorten their life expectancy.

Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of people with diabetes, Grant said. People with diabetes are two to four times more likely to have a heart attack or stroke than people without diabetes, he said.

The increased risk of heart disease in people with diabetes is what was behind the rationale for this year's recommendations on statins, blood pressure and exercise, according to Grant.

"In the old days, all we thought about was sugar, and nowadays we recognize that the leading killer in diabetes is heart disease," he said. "You have to be aggressive in controlling risks."

He added that the ADA standards are updated each year to give doctors the latest guidance for diagnosing and treating both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

The ADA recommends a moderate statin dose for people with diabetes who are under 40, or 40 to 75 without any other risks for heart disease. A high statin dose is recommended for people with diabetes who have heart disease, and for those between 40 and 75 who have other risk factors for heart disease.